Montana Secretary of State Says Democratic Party Must Replace U.S. Senate Nominee if Original Nominee Withdraws, Ignoring Court Precedent

On July 28, Montana Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen stated that if the Democratic Party nominee for U.S.. Senate, Alani Bankhead, withdraws, the law requires the Democratic Party to replace her.  However, her belief is contradicted by many court decisions that give political parties freedom of association to decide for themselves whether to run for any particular office.  See this story.

Most on-point is the Seventh Circuit opinion Libertarian Party of Illinois v Scholz, 872 F 3d 518 (2017), which struck down an Illinois law that said new parties must run a full slate of candidates.

The reason the Montana Democratic Party may not want to run anyone is that there is a strong independent in the race, Seth Bodnar.  Many Montana Democratic Party leaders want him to win, and most observers believe that Bodnar could win if no Democrat is on the ballot.


Comments

Montana Secretary of State Says Democratic Party Must Replace U.S. Senate Nominee if Original Nominee Withdraws, Ignoring Court Precedent — 4 Comments

  1. Good for the Secretary of State for doing the right thing and standing up to the tyranny of kangaroos in black dresses.

  2. So why doesn’t Boodnar run as a DimOleRat? Only because they have made their brand so toxic in Montana that he could only realistically hope to sneak his badly hidden communist views into office under a fake independent label.

    Voters tend to associate independent with independence from government and with individual rights – the opposite of Boodnar and his unlimited government communist installment plan.

  3. Non citizens voting is fine. Trump is a tyrant because he’s trying to put a stop to it.

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